


Call It Serendipity

by elizabethelizabeth



Series: Patterns of Talking [1]
Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan, RIORDAN Rick - Works
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Background Relationships, College, First Meetings, Gen, She/Her Pronouns For Alex Fierro, University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 07:47:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19389679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabethelizabeth/pseuds/elizabethelizabeth
Summary: "The girl widened her eyes in mock amazement. Magnus noticed they were two different colors. 'Wow, such insight! Seems like they’ll let anyone be a psych major these days.'"





	Call It Serendipity

**Author's Note:**

> alternatively titled "and they were roommates"

“I know, Amir, it’s… I am sorry… No, it’s not a big deal… well, how was I supposed to know that?”

Magnus took a loud, pointed slip from his iced chai, and it finally got Samirah’s attention.

“Look, I’ll tell you everything later. Let me know when your next flight leaves, okay? I’m with Magnus right now.” Samirah paused before looking at Magnus. “Amir says hi.”

“I say hi back,” but Samirah’s attention was already back to her phone.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Another pause, and Magnus could see hints of a blush before Samirah turned away completely, mumbling “I love you, too.”

Samirah apologized as she faced Magnus again. “I haven’t heard from him in weeks, apparently no one could get cell service in Mecca. He’s in London on a twelve hour layover now.”

“Airport naps. Lovely.”

“I don’t envy him either, trust me.”

“How was his trip?” Magnus asked. 

“Great for him, too long for me.” She stuffed her phone in the pocket of her jeans. “It gave me time to focus on my winter courses.”

This was news to Magnus. “You took classes over the break?” he asked incredulously. 

“Online, yeah.” Samirah took a sip of her coffee, and Magnus cringed. At how long she was on the phone with Amir, it had to be cold by this point. “And a seminar.”

“You’re insane.”

“It was over medical technology! And apparently it’s only offered every, like, fifty years.”

“Sounds fake, but sure.”

Samirah looked like she was about to argue until she saw Magnus’ smirk, and rolled her eyes instead. “I hate you.”

“I haven’t seen you in a month! I have a lot of teasing to catch up on.”

“What a friend.”

Magnus ignored Samirah, and instead changed the subject to ask, “What are you telling Amir about later?”

Magnus immediately regretted being nosy when Samirah deflated, picking at the paper rim of her Starbucks cup. “It’s… complicated.”

“You don’t have to—”

“No, it’s ok. I should tell you anyways.” Magnus didn’t know what to expect, and his mind ran through an increasingly ridiculous list of what could be bothering Samirah: a death in the family, an impending breakup with Amir, a prophecy about the end of the world. What he definitely did not expect was “I found out I had a sibling over the break.”

Magnus’ brain short circuited, and the only response he could think of was “What the fuck?”

Thankfully, Samirah laughed. “My reaction exactly.”

“I,” Magnus floundered. “What? How?”

“Half-sibling, technically. Got a weird email over the break, thought it was someone trying to scam me. Turns out I have a… sibling.”

“Wow.” Magnus really couldn’t believe his own lack of cohesion. 

“And they’re transferring to Boston U.” Samirah set her head down on the table, groaning audibly.

“That’s… a bad thing, I guess?”

Samirah sighed. “I mean, no. It’s just  _ complicated _ , and I hate complications.” Samirah sat up again. “Can we talk about something else? I promise I’ll explain the whole sordid tale to you at some point, but I really just need a distraction right now.”

Maybe Magnus wasn’t always stellar at emotional support, but he could definitely do distraction. Over the next hour, he gave an exaggerated retelling of his Christmas spent with Hearth and Blitz, leaving out no details on the absolute catastrophe of them attempting to bake a turkey.

“If it’s not obvious by this point, we ended up at I-HOP instead, where I stuffed myself with blueberry pancakes. And I heard the waitress exclaim as she walked out of sight, ‘Merry fucking Christmas, assholes.’”

“‘And to all a good night,’” Samirah finished before finishing her cup of coffee. “Remind me to never spend a food-related holiday with you three.”

“Samirah, you missed the whole moral of the story.”

“And that is?”

“If Hearth and Blitz fuck up badly enough, they’ll feel terrible and buy pancakes to make up for it.”

“The true meaning of Christmas.”

“Obviously.”

Samirah rolled her eyes, pulling out her phone to look at the time. “I gotta run. Meeting Bibi to do some shopping.” She stood, and Magnus followed suit. “You moving back into your dorm today?”

Magnus nodded. “I love Blitz and Hearth, and I’m very grateful that they let me stay with them over the break, but there’s only so much repressed sexual tension I can take.”

“I did not need to know this.”

“Maybe not, but someone needs to feel my pain.” Magnus looked off into the distance, hopefully looking both pitiful and mentally scarred simultaneously. “It was torture, Sam.”

“I’m sure it was,” Samirah replied, not at all convincingly. “See you later?”

They parted with Samirah promising to bring falafel from Amir’s restaurant next time they hung out, and Magnus was on his way back to his dorm for the first time in a month.

The apartment was frigid when he arrived. Magnus wasn’t accustomed to being shocked by any temperature—Samirah maintained that Magnus was a walking space heater, impervious to all weather no matter how extreme. Even Magnus had to admit that the space was near freezing, even by his standards. The thermostat by the door read 54 °F, which was not acceptable in any universe. Magnus frantically pressed the up arrow until the temperature was set to early summer instead of arctic winter. He wasn’t paying for utilities anyway; he could afford to live at a livable temperature. He also reasoned that he spent four years with no heating system whatsoever, so he was a little entitled to a comfortable living space. 

He was debating between unpacking or putting off unpacking when the door opened behind him. The sound made him jump, his fight-or-flight instinct kicking in as he spun to face the intruder. Silhouetted in the door frame was a girl he didn’t recognize. Magnus prided himself on knowing everyone on his floor at least by face—of course, he didn’t like to admit that it was only as a safety precaution. It was safer to know everyone in his immediate surroundings.

He was immediately on guard, then, when the stranger stood in the doorway, looking equally as dumbstruck as Magnus felt. “What the fuck?”

That was definitely not the question Magnus had been expecting. The girl’s voice was raspy, simultaneously as if she hadn’t recently used it or used it too much. She was holding a set of keys in her right hand, and a red rolling suitcase in the other. He took in her outfit: green camo pants, a bulky bubblegum pink sweater, and a black beanie that just barely covered up locks of dark green hair.

“Hey.” That was probably not the answer the girl in the doorway was expecting, so now they were even.

“What are you doing in my dorm?”

Magnus looked around, just to make sure he was in the right room. Sparse decorations and barely lived in—the only discernible clue that he wasn’t in the  _ wrong _ dorm was his record player on the kitchenette table. “Uh, I live here?”

The girl shook her head. “No, you don’t.”

Magnus was starting to get irritated, the confusion fading. “Pretty sure I do, actually. Since last semester. My fruity body wash is in the shower and everything.”

She didn’t answer, instead moving further into the apartment, pushing past Magnus. “Yes, please, come on in.” The girl ignored him, opening up the door to Magnus’ room, and then the empty room immediately opposite it. “Look, if you’re in the wrong room and don’t want to admit it, it’s fine. Everybody makes mistakes.”

“The only  _ mistake  _ is that you’re here.”

That stung. “Fucking hell, you don’t have to—”

“This is room 315, right?” she interrupted.

Magnus nodded.

“Motherfuckers.” The girl pushed past Magnus again, back to the suitcase she left by the door. Abruptly, she shoved it down and opened one of the front pockets, producing a crumbled stack of papers. “Motherfuckers,” she repeated, and she slammed the door behind her, leaving her bag opened on the floor.

She returned an hour later, radiating an aura of hatred and malice. Dealing with campus bureaucracy could do that to a person, but Magnus was not about to excuse her earlier behavior. “Welcome back,” Magnus greeted from the couch, a bit too cheerily. In response the girl slammed the door behind her, then glared at Magnus. “You ready to tell me why you’re in my dorm?”

“This is my dorm.” Damn. And Magnus thought  _ he _ was stubborn.

“Look,” Magnus sighed. “We can talk this over in circles for the rest of the semester if you really want to, but the fact remains that this has been my dorm since last August.” The girl ignored Magnus, tearing off her beanie and throwing it on top of her still-open suitcase, along with the now even more crumpled stack of papers. “I’m Magnus, by the way.”

“I don’t give a shit.”

“Wow, okay.” Magnus stood. “Look, I don’t know what your problem is—”

“Besides you?”

“I think you’re misdirecting your anger at the Housing office towards me, and I don’t appreciate it.”

The girl widened her eyes in mock amazement. Magnus noticed they were two different colors. “Wow, such insight! Seems like they’ll let anyone be a psych major these days.”

“Jesus, you’re such...” Magnus trailed off, taking a deep breath. He’d set himself back years if he resorted to name calling now. “I’m about to head to Housing myself. They obviously made a mistake anyway. This is a co-ed building, but they’re not supposed to room girls and boys together. Someone fucked up the paperwork big time.”

The girl deflated. Magnus hadn’t noticed how much tension she was holding onto until she did. “They didn’t fuck up the paperwork.”

Magnus cocked his head. “What—?”

“I mean, yes, they fucked up. I specifically requested a single dorm when filling out the twenty pages of paperwork they required, but it was apparently all for shit since they obviously didn’t read the damn thing and roomed me with you.”

Magnus was lost. It wasn’t an odd feeling, or a new one, but that didn’t mean he had to enjoy it. “I don’t—”

“Fucking Christ, dude, I’m trans, okay?”

Magnus didn’t quite understand, and the confusion obviously showed on his face, because the girl rolled her eyes, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “I mean, technically I identify as genderfluid, but none of that is anyone’s fucking business. Which is why I requested a single dorm, so I wouldn’t have to come out like every other day and deal with a shit, bigoted roommate who’d give me hell for my gender identity, and—”

“That’s bullshit.”

The girl laughed, incredulous. “Of course! And you actually are bigoted, wow. This is insane, I think this is the fastest I’ve ever had a negative response to—”

Magnus waved his hands in front of him, as if trying to diffuse the tension. “Wait, hold on, nope that’s not what I meant!” The girl raised an eyebrow, but didn’t interrupt Magnus’ desperate attempt at an apology. “I mean, it’s bullshit that they did this to you.”

The girl dropped her hands to her sides. “What?”

“They’re supposed to have protections for LGBT identifying people, aren’t they? Why did they think it was ok to room you with me?” The girl didn’t answer, which Magnus took as an implicit sign to keep rambling incoherently. “I mean, it didn’t give you an excuse to yell at me, but I kinda get it. What if they had roomed you with some MAGA-hat wearing bigot? The threat of violence against queer people is so pervasive, there’s no excuse for the university to—”

“Apparently, they’ll let anyone be a gender and women’s studies major as well.”

Magnus was about to be angry again, until he saw the girl was smiling. She was  _ teasing  _ him. Magnus realized suddenly that his hands were midair, as if trying to shoo away gendered bullshit like annoying flies. He lowered his arms, and the girl’s smile widened. “Sorry,” Magnus apologized. “I wrote a paper last semester on anti-bullying campaigns and how they’re intrinsically tied to queer politics.”

“Did you make a good grade on it?”

“A solid C-plus. My citation was shit, so it’s fine.”

The girl laughed, and held her hand out to Magnus. “Alex. Alex Fierro.”

Magnus took her hand, shaking it. “Magnus.”

“You mentioned that.”

“Magnus Chase.”

The girl’s hands had a roughness to them that Magnus hadn’t expected. 

“Look, we’ll get this sorted with Housing,” Magnus paused to look at the time on the microwave. 5:10. All university offices were closed. “Monday, apparently.” He turned back to Alex, who was still smirking. “If you want the place to yourself, I have some friends I can stay with—”

“Don’t be stupid.” Alex bent down to zip up her suitcase before taking it to the unoccupied room. “I can last for a weekend with you.” She turned back to look at Magnus. “Is that cool with you?”

Magnus hoped he sounded not at all nervous when he assured Alex that it was most definitely cool with him.

**Author's Note:**

> hello folks, welcome to my wholly necessary and not at all self-indulgent MCGA college AU. because I don't want to promise chapters to you, this is a tale told in parts. I've been working on this since February, and I have headcanons and backstories for everyone. e v e r y o n e. join the party, enjoy the ride.


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